Xbox User Blog

There are 200 gamerpoints up for grabs in Playdead’s excellent Limbo: 5 of those you’ll get from walking backwards and squashing some eggs at the start, a very reasonable 100 points are scored for spending several thoroughly enjoyable hours completing the game. But 10 gamerpoints come from an achievement that’s harder to nail than plastic rawl plug through an iron girder – that is to say, it’s harder than all the rest put together.

All you have to do is complete the game in one sitting with five or less deaths. Which is fine, yes? You’ve probably completed the game once before you even thought about trying this achievement – at least, we recommend  you complete it first without trying for this achievement to save abject disappointment. You know what’s coming, so it shouldn’t be a problem. That should hold true for few hours through the forest and much of the town area, where you can probably get away with dying no more than once or twice, but you’re heading into trouble in the factory: those buzzsaws are a nightmare, plus all that topsy-turvy gravity stuff takes real skill to navigate even when you know how to complete each puzzle.

Unfortunately convention dictates that games get harder the further you progress, so you’ll have to breeze through the first couple of hours just to make it to the real challenge of this achievement. I’ve tried and failed at this twice but to be honest, striving for the No Point In Dying achievement isn’t as much a pain as it sounds, because navigating a lethal obstacle course in the knowledge that you have a limited number of tries is a real thrill. It punishes you with the sadism of an eighties platform game, which in a gaming world of checkpoints and sugar-coated assists, is refreshing – I’d recommend any Limbo player to at least give it a go.

Microsoft Game Studios Creative Director Peter Molyneux thinks there’s plenty of life left in the Xbox 360, five years after the console’s launch

Molyneux is guest editor of 360 Magazine issue 72 – asked what might emerge on the 360 over next five years, the veteran designer told the magazine: “I think the next five years will be pretty interesting. The release of Kinect this holiday is going to change the type of people that play on the 360, and is going to change the sort of genres that are going to be played on the 360.”

Critics cited a lack of core-focused titles for Kinect when the peripheral was detailed at E3, but Molyneux thinks there’s something for everyone in the 360′s future.

“You’re just going to see some amazing core games, so the future of the 360, I think, is very bright, and continues to evolve as any platorm does. It just doesn’t feel like we’ve reached the limits of the 360 or anywhere near it.”

We know of at least one developer who would disagree.

Check out issue 72 of 360 Magazine – available in all good UK newsagents now, online from the imagine eShop, or for digital devices from iTunes.

In the wake of Peter Moore’s announcement that EA could recreate smaller (or, as he terms them, ‘regional’ sports) using web browsers, X360 nominates a set of currently criminally overlooked pastimes ripe for the EA treatment.

1) Hundred and eighty

The brash, extravagant style with which Sky carries off coverage of PDC events seems a perfect fit for EA’s similar talents. Imagine designing a custom walk-on, or reprogramming the announcer to imitate Mario. A classic in waiting.

2) Willow on leather

You’re going to have to trust us on this one, but X360 is assured by a friend holding a doctorate in maths that cricket management simulations are a statistician’s dream. We’re inclined to disagree, but only because ‘padding up’ sounds a bit rude.

3) Summer Athletics

Sure, most folks might only be interested in a little track and field as the torch itself passes through their town, but EA would surely make a satisfactory stab at producing a Golden League athletics title. Anything’s got to be better than that bizarre, context-less game with the monkey in it…

4) Old Biddies

The smell of scalp polish. The feint, yet unmistakable smell of urine. Where else, but at a crown green bowls event? Such a conversion would be beneficial for two reasons. The first, you wouldn’t have to admit to yourself people get old. The second? Well, it could be your own little secret…

5) Ally McCoist’s Director Of Football

Sure, ‘soccer’ might be the most popular sport on the planet, but assuming the role of the behind-the-scenes executive behind it all certainly isn’t. File tax returns! Explore profit margins! Compile reports. The sad thing is, this one actually exists…

Games™ has picked the 100 greatest videogames of all time, hitting shelves today with a special, limited edition cover for each. Follow the links to check out the covers: 1-20, 21-40, 41-60, 61-80, 81-100.

Issue 100 also features in-depth interviews with industry legends such as Ken Levine, Tim Schafer, Yoshinori Ono and Peter Molyneux, as well as a look back at the last ten years in gaming. It also discusses what the future might hold with some of the finest minds in the biz.

“gamesTM hits shelves today with a special, limited edition for each ”

Plus:

FEATURES
Discuss The Decade - In this issue 100 special edition of Discuss, we look back on the events, developments, controversies, promises, surprises and quotes from the last ten years in videogames.

100 Greatest Games Of All Time – As we reach our centenary issue, gamesTM chooses the 100 greatest games in history. The gloves are off. Let the arguments begin.

Great Expectations – Peter Molyneux promised us a no-holds barred interview, and wouldn’t you know it, he actuallly delivered. gamesTM speaks to the legendary game designer about Fable 3, Kinect and a boy named Milo.

No Gods Or Kings – With BioShock Infinite now officially unveiled, we sit down with Irrational Games co-founder Ken Levine to discuss his past, present and future.

Street Fighting Man – Street Fighter IV was a major factor in the rebirth of the beat-’em-up – we talk to Yoshinori Ono, the man responsible for arcade sticks becoming a coffee table centrepiece.

Team Player - ‘There’s no ‘I’ in team’, they say. Clearly they weren’t talking about Sonic Team, or the head of the Sega codeshop, Takashi Iizuka.

Outrageous Misfortune – He’s one of the games industry’s brightest and most creative talents, but his career has been beset by bad luck. We ask Tim Scafer about staying funny in the face of adversity.

A Link To The Future – We speak to a number of industry legends, including David Braben and David Cage, about what they think the future holds for gaming.

REVIEWS
The definitive verdicts on the biggest games, including… Metroid: Other M Shank Valkyria Chronicles II StarCraft II: Wings Of Liberty R.U.S.E. Dead Rising 2: Case Zero Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days Lara Croft And The Guardian Of Light Limbo Mafia II Castlevania: Harmony Of Despair

RETRO
Behind The Scenes – Burnout 3: Takedown gamesTM is given unrestricted access to the Criterion vault, returning with the untold story of the developer’s finest arcade racer.

VCS
Veterans Howard Scott Warshaw talks to his former Atari colleagues, and returns with their account of the rise and fall of the original videogame company.

Famicom Memories Japan’s best known retro gamers look back at the genesis of the country’s videogame age and the incredible impact of Nintendo’s Family Computer.

Issue 100 is available now from all good newsagents or online from the Imagine eShop. You can even select which cover you’d like to order by clicking here, though supplies of each will be extremely limited so you’ll want to act fast to get the one you want. Alternatively get it on your mobile device via iTunes.

So Valve is promising “three pretty* big surprises” for us within the next 12 months (according to a CVG article). The Seattle based publisher has already pulled its first big surprise planned for E3 this year, revealing Portal 2 instead (which was nice, anyway), so what could these three things be? What we think they might be is Episode 3, Left 4 Dead 3 and a completely new IP, but here are the three things we think Valve is most likely not to reveal in the next 12 months:

1) Half-Life 3

Unless Gabe Newell is massively playing down the third game in one of the most iconic series’ of the last decade as merely a “pretty*” big surprise, then it’s extremely doubtful that Valve will reveal Half-Life 3 any time soon.

2) Source 2

For the same reasons as above, a Source 2 announcement would be ridiculous in light of the “pretty*” big statement. Half-Life 3 and Source 2 would come hand in hand as well, making “pretty big” the most jaw-dropping understatement since Mark Zuckerberg told his fellow students he’d soon have more friends than all of them put together.

3) Steam 2

Steam launches for console. Probability of this ever happening… well, the bookies would undoubtedly give you worse value for money on this announcement popping up in the next year than your odds on Naughty Bear outselling Black Ops in 2010.

*Of course, Newell knows that Valve only has to tease at a future product to get the fans frothing at their mouths. Maybe he actually meant to say that the surprise is going to be “the biggest thing to rock the world since the Beatles declared they were bigger than Jesus”? Arrgh… we’re confused now.

In light of Sony’s PlayStation Move embargo breaking, we thought it’d be a good idea to contradict the entire internet and tell y’all exactly why you should wait for Kinect rather than purchasing a set of glowing balls with colours on the end. Because we’re like that.

1) Pricing Minefield

It seems a useful rule of thumb at present that most PlayStation Move titles that can be played with either one or two motion controllers  are of much greater quality when both are employed. Kind of knocks the debate about which system’s more expensive into a cocked hat, that…

2) French Fancy

Sports Champions invites gamers to play boules. BOULES. That’s only one step away from those wooden skittles sets you find in retirement homes, and certainly not where we saw ‘virtual reality’ as back when we were 12. And it was ok to still call it that…

3) Puerile Joke

We’re sick and tired of people asking us if we’ve had an idea whenever the remote is held overhead. At least with Kinect folks can only mock your flabby frame. And we’re used to that…

4) Retrograde Step

If initial review scores are to be believed, it seems Move does quite a good job of taking existing game concepts and making them slightly worse. It’s better, then, to wait until motion gameplay innovation has matured. Well, it can’t be too long until Get Fit With Mel B is out…

5) Cheaper Alternatives

Well, there seems little point in lavishing shiny HD graphics on gamers if they’re going to spend half the time having their arms obstructing the screen. Can this be a 360 magazine recommending people get the Wii? No – just play outside instead.

Thanks to our friends at Blizzard, NowGamer is giving away 100 beta keys a day for the next ten days for the hugely anticipated Cataclysm expansion pack. So, maths fans, that means NowGamer has got 1000 keys up for grabs.

All you have to do to enter the draw is click here and answer the simple WOW-related question. Make sure you fill in your details and, if you’ve come here via Twitter, then make sure you retweet the original tweet and include your Twitter name with your answer – they’ll be checking!

At the end of each day, 100 names will be drawn from the proverbial hat and winners will be emailed their beta keys, so keep an eye on your email.

Apart from that, good luck and we’ll see you in Azeroth!

I awoke to the news – nay, fanfare – that Microsoft had unveiled a new pad for the X360 this morning, and while I’m perfectly happy with the matte black pad that came with my Elite, I was naturally curious. I’d imagine a lot of 360 gamers, mostly happy with their current controllers, were of a similar mind – so flicking through several images of what seemed like a grayscale Photoshop picture of a standard 360 controller, it occurred to me only after the nth time I stared in denial at the same image that this was the holy grail of peripherals that everyone was raving about.

So that subtle change in design on an otherwise mundane exterior must conceal some revolutionary technology, right? Something that will change the face of 360 gaming? Something that will enrich my life, make me feel better about myself, help me lose 28 pounds in a day and compel attractive women to love me? No, better than that: it houses a d-pad that – wait for it – raises and lowers whenever you twist it. Sodding hell… stop the press, notify the Prime Minister and tell the Palestinians/Israelis to stop fighting, because we now have the answer to the meaning of life.

I can appreciate that this may or may not solve some pad issue for a niche group of people, but most serious fighting genre fans I know own a Street Fighter IV fight stick, which you can pick up for around the same planned RRP as this new 360 pad ($64.99 in the US, price TBC in Europe). What galls me as much as the price is the ridiculously incremental design, something I thought only Nintendo and Apple subscribed to with their endless iterations of the DS and the iPhone.

Hmmm. On second thoughts, it’s not quite as extreme an example as those. Still, it really doesn’t even approach being interesting, let alone essential enough, for me to buy at that price. I’ll be saving myself money (and saving the environment) by skipping this superficial peripheral altogether.

While we wouldn’t wish for this Case Zero review to descend to the status of a mere opinion column, allow us just a little digression. Much has been said about the desirability and wisdom of attempting to force that additional tenner out of the gaming customer, with methods about as numerous as opinions.

Whether it’s EA’s ‘Project Ten Dollar’, items a little more optional, or this story-driven approach, it appears that the way gamers are charged for their experiences looks set to change, whether the prevailing opinion is positive or negative. There is, though, a hidden danger lurking in publishers’ blind spots, perhaps best shown here.

See, this prelude to Dead Rising 2 sees players screeching into a barely populated desert town on the outskirts of Las Vegas, stepping into the shoes of Chuck Greene as some cad nicks his off-roader and he’s forced to salvage motorcycle parts in order to escape.

Cue the invasion of hundreds of zombies, a similar – though obviously limited due to the relative sizes of the games – suite of customised weaponry to fight them off, and the very distinct possibility that gamers will have had their fill of Capcom’s concept before the full title’s opening cinematic.

Not because the central concept lacks interest – far from it. More that the DLC strategy simply doesn’t match such an immediate gameplay concept. As a standalone piece of content, then, it’s obviously brilliant, offering significant value in both length and quality. Whether this type of release will endure though, we aren’t sure.

Looking forward to this October’s social festivities? Halloween’s a great excuse for a party, everyone’s up for a bit of communal gluttony in the name of Western excess on Canadian Thanksgiving day, and even Europe’s game for defying the onset of winter by donning its beer jacket for Oktoberfest. But there’s an international conspiracy afoot to steal your lives away from friends and family that starts on the first of October, with millions of square-eyed 360 gamers emerging the other side of the month wondering how 2010 suddenly became 11 months long. We had a life goddammit, and this is what we’re going to lose it it to:

1 October – Dead Rising 2:

Swatting zombies is fun – for one.

Anticipation Rating: 3/5

Social Detraction factor: 4/5

8 October – WRC FIA World Championship 2010:

Quality time with the woman is out, male bonding time is in.

Anticipation Rating: 3/5

Social Detraction factor: 2/5

15 October – Medal Of Honor:

Helping you make friends – the virtual kind – then kill them.

Anticipation Rating: 4/5

Social Detraction factor: 4/5